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← Return to Treatment for Coronary Total Occlusion(100% blockage)
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Treatment for Coronary Total Occlusion(100% blockage)
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Nov 8, 2023 | Replies (45)Comment receiving replies
Caretakermom:
I can only offer my own situation that you might find similar. I was diagnosed with 100% blockage in my LAD, which is the main inlet to the heart. The doctors then gave less than a 20% chance of success due to the time that passed (which I understood was a few years). They said I had a heart attack years ago but I never felt or knew it.
Per my understanding, my body grown capillaries to supply the heart with adequate blood flow. Since the chance for success was so low for open heart surgery (and time for recuperation so long) I elected not to have the surgery, a decision with which my doctor agreed.
I exercised at home (with an old piece of equipment known as a gazelle) and later joined a gym. That was over 25 years ago, and I’m still around to talk about it.
I hope that information was useful to you and your decisions, and wish you and your husband all the best and will be in prayer for your family.
Howard
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@howardm, so glad I finally found someone who can relate to our issue. Where the 100% blockage is the artery on the back of the heart that comes around to the front right, this is one of the 3 main arteries of the heart. I don't know what the technical name of that is but dr says there are collateral blood vessels that formed and they are supplying adequate blood flow. Like yourself, hub is asymptomatic and has never had a heart attack(or maybe had one but didn't notice). The low success rate of 30% is on stent installation procedure called PCI, peripheral coronary intervention. Open heart surgery, single bypass, would fix the blockage but UCLA cardiologist doesn't recommend bypass for this kind of blockage situation. So he says he would clear hub if hubby maintains free from coronary diseases up until he gets his transplant(which may take years because of long waiting list). But that is UCLA. Mayo is a different story. Will find out more when we consult with a Mayo cardiologist early next year. Hopefully, Mayo can help fix the blockage without doing open heart surgery. Doing a bypass sounds too much of an overkill and in the end, the heart trumps the kidney!!!